Dawn of a New Era is just online https://www.contractormag.com/
“Enviromation” combines environment and automation. It describes the creative collision of today’s environmental needs with the need to automate our informational and physical interactions.
Please share your thoughts on our LinkedIn Post.
Thanks for the inspiration https://lnkd.in/giJvxhUF controlscon.com Scott Cochrane Cochrane Supply & Engineering
The unabridged version follows.
Fifty years in the controls industry has allowed me to see the evolution through different eras. Patterns repeat themselves, and timelines become blurry as one era ends and the next starts.
New Eras evolve inside the existing eras and become the change we see. The era we are entering is the most exciting and life-changing era I have ever seen, more incredible than the changes created by the internet. Early innovators and adopters always lead this change.
“Dawn of a new era” is the overarching theme for Controls Con 2023, as the industry continues to embrace the role of augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and cloud-based solutions. Speakers include some of the most influential decision-makers and building automation professionals navigating the current evolution of the industry. Speakers will deliver invaluable insights and demonstrations through keynote presentations, offering attendees a window into the technologies and policies transforming the BAS industry.
I refer to this new ERA as “The ERA of Enviromation,” a new/old word taken from our failed started-up ESI ENVIROMATION SERVICES INC 30 years ago.
“Enviromation” combines environment and automation. It describes the creative collision of today’s environmental needs with the need to automate our informational and physical interactions.
We are all “Eviromationist” in this new era, another new word. We need to create Interoperative connections using the power of IoT while building machine learning bridges that will allow controllable sustainable AI interventions in this next era.
I have been invited to prepare my input for https://www.controlscon.com/
Their theme, “The Dawn of a New Era,” inspired this post.
I have been part of all the below Eras, which provide insight for me to identify and name the New Era;
The era of pneumatic controls
In late 1960 when I first started in the Automated Building industry, I was introduced to several control technologies like pneumatics, fluidics, electric, and electronic., We were beginning to see the appearance of the first hard-wired logic machine with rumours of computers in our future. We were moving out of the pneumatic Era, although it would remain the actuation workhorse. More about my journey before the internet era is at the bottom of this post
The direct digital control DDC Era
1975 We started Sinclair Energy Services SES as a consultant in the not yet invented Direct Digital Control DDC Era. First, we needed to invent and build the first DDC control systems
The University of Alberta (U of A) started a total Direct Digital Control system in 1975. I was lucky to be part of this project, installing large campus buildings with the first only total DDC without any conventional pneumatic controls. The original SES evolved to be today’s SES Consulting.
The roots of the SES family tree run deep. SES began as Sinclair Environmental under the leadership of Ken Sinclair. Ken was involved in the early adoption of building automation systems, driving energy efficiency in the 70s. He founded a thriving consultancy on the values of innovation and achieving results.
In this contractor article, we described our humble begins Reinvention, Rebirth, Renaissance
Why am I so fascinated by the home office concept? We now have the technologies we originally envisioned at the turn of the century to create a successful home-office interface.
Since 1975 Jane and I have worked from a home office providing Building Automation & Energy Services, using a PET computer & 300 baud modem. In 1997 we created a company called Enviromation Services, Inc. to capture the integration of the home office connected to large buildings and businesses primarily by modems and phone lines. We floated concepts like the home office replacing the second car and the garage space becoming the new home office. It was still early days, but a new era began when we started using email and were introduced to the internet.
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The Internet Era
1994 we started ESI ENVIROMATION SERVICES INC
The word “Enviromation” is a mashup of environment and automation. Our concept of creating an Enviromation was way too soon. The underlying technologies had to evolve, and mass acceptance was needed. We were under-informed and underfunded, plus too soon to market, but we saw where this concept would lead us in the future.
The mass did not understand our idea of trading the second car for a laptop and working from home to save the environment. The move to remote mass working was only a change that could occur with a world pandemic. The Internet had just been invented; connectivity was by the dial-up modem/the phone. Education of the masses and adoption were needed to make our vision of Enviromation possible. Faster networks and devices and mass evolution, plus a more profound knowledge of what we were talking about was, needed,
Our first effort crashed and burned but introduced us to the exciting era of the internet, the wonderful world of the web and spawned several internet companies. It was the .com, dot bomb era as the world struggled to understand and create a financial model with the World Wide Web.
We all discovered the power of the internet and networks, both physical and personal.
What we learn from our mistakes is way more valuable than what we learn from our successes.
So get out there and make some mistakes…big smile.
We started living the lessons learned; For the last 30 years, I have been working out of our Home Office in a carbon-free, passive solar home. We supported the philosophy of living where you work. The office of the original SES was always a Home Office since 1975. We used a 300-baud modem. However, I did travel daily to projects and became part of their teams.
Our Hobbies are Environmentally friendly, Sailing, Cycling, Hiking, and Kayaking. We live within walking distance of food supply.
1999 we Started https://www.automatedbuildings.com/. At the start of the Internet era, one of our first articles is still online.
The Enviromation Era started to evolve within the internet Era. This 2001 article
“Enviromation” – The Art & Science of Communication/Automation Integration with our Environments
In 2003 this article hinted at this new era in our future
The meshing of Broadband, Telephony, and Building Automation has created a powerful new virtual architectural fabric. I call this fabric “Enviromation” a combination of the words Environment, Communication and Automation.
Growing greener buildings is not a new concept. In September 2003, I presented a paper at the Worldwide CIBSE/ASHRAE gathering of the building services industry in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Internet Era Spawned many innovations, such as moving the BAS graphics to be browser-based, web DDC control, data in the cloud, and cloud control.
With such new concepts as Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.
The medium is the message the internet taught us to understand the IoT and to examine how it was doing things which led to
Internet of Things Era – IoT Era
Because the Internet Era is built on IoT, we all started following this new era.
Master System Integrator rapidly transitioned to Internet Protocol IP networks, and the vendor provided the new devices with IoT capabilities.
1984, Tridium introduced the Niagara framework
Honeywell bought Tridium in 2005
By adopting the ways of IoT, we started to look at other powerful concepts like Virtual Reality, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence, most recently ChatGPT, a chatbot/Generative Pre-trained Transformer model.
Evolution of the Building Systems MSI In this LinkedIn post by Brian Turner, one of our sponsors https://www.buildingsiot.com/ Our Sponsors and Contributing Editors have an excellent discussion.
More tools than we could imagine. What would we use these fantastic tools for?
Our Opportunity in ESG
The ESG era ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance
The following is a transcript from the “Our Opportunity in ESG – The Need for Automation to Meet Owner’s ESG & Carbon Reduction Goals” panel at AHR Expo 2023 in Atlanta, GA.
All these Eras created our bag of tools which is how we depict everything from now on in the
Introducing the Eviromation Era
It time has finally arrived
My last month’s article discussed AI’s Value in this new era, which has generated some great discussion on LinkedIn, linked here.
Automatedbuildings.com Ken Sinclair wants everyone, plus my contributing editors and sponsors to weigh into this conversation
David Sciarrino, LEED AP Hector Hernandez Nicolas Waern – Digital Twin Specialist Sudha Jamthe Keith Gipson Scott Cochrane Anto Budiardjo Marc Petock PassiveLogic
Lauren Scott Greg Walker Tim Vogel
thanks for the publication, Steve Spaulding
#digital #ai #aiforgood #chatgpt #community #architecture #automatedbuildings
I am pleased with our last post, which links to many online resources and educational YouTubes from AHRExpo Atlanta and speaks to the creation of our Creative Community Collisions.
Our Dinosaur DDC control systems were designed only to control, not be, self-driving, self-configuring data generation instruments. The collision of the IoT invasion and the high profile of the ESG era is fueling us and creating the perfect storm and transition to the dawn of the Enviromation Era.
The creative collision of today’s environmental needs with our ability to automate and connect with IoT using Machine learning bridges to allow controllable AI intervention in this next era
Please join us and share your opinions on our industry-edited dynamic library/landing/launch pad where we all can write on the walls for the world to see and the industry to exchange ideas.
Imaging yourself writing this article after your 50 years in the industry
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